Associated Press

Paris, May 24:

Playing flat-footed and looking flat, Andre Agassi lost on Tuesday in the opening round of the French Open for the second year in a row. Agassi didn’t request treatment from a trainer, but he rarely ran after shots in the final two sets and lost to Finnish Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 4-6, 6-7, 6-1, 6-0. Before the final game of the three-hour match, the 35-year-old Agassi buried his head in his towel and looked exhausted. He failed to reach the third round for the seventh time in 16 appearances at Roland Garros. In 58 Grand Slam tournaments — the most for any man in the Open era — he has lost in the opening round nine times. In women’s play, dominant at the start and shaky at the finish, Justine Henin-Hardenne won first-round match. The tournament favourite and 2003 champion extended her winning streak to 18 matches, all on clay, by beating Conchita Martinez 6-0, 4-6, 6-4. Henin-Hardenne won a lopsided first set and a 36-point game to start the second. But she double-faulted nine times, and in the final set she nearly blew a 5-1 lead before closing out her first match in a Grand Slam event since September. She needed 2 hours, 16 minutes to beat Martinez.

Second-seeded Maria Sharapova overcame an early deficit and 59 unforced errors, including 11 double faults, to beat fellow 18-year-old Evgenia Linetskaya 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. Sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Mathilde Johansson 6-1, 6-1. Two seeded women lost — No 23 Ai Sugiyama and No 26 Paola Suarez. No 3 Marat Safin, the reigning Australian Open champion, opened a bid for his first Roland Garros title by beating Raemon Sluiter 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Also advancing were 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, No 12 Nikolay Davydenko and No 15 Tommy Robredo. No 13 Ivan Ljubicic lost to Mariano Puerta 7-5, 7-5, 6-2, and No 24 Feliciano Lopez was upset by Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-0, 6-7, 6-4. Sugiyama lost to Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Suarez was beaten by Anna Chakvetadze 7-5, 1-6, 6-0.

Ferrero, seeded 32nd, defeated Karol Beck 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Davydenko swept Sasa Tuksar 6-2, 6-4, 6-3, and Robredo rallied past Peter Luczak 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.